The Stripper's Guide blog discusses the history of the American newspaper comic strip.

Monday, March 07, 2011

Ink-Slinger Profiles: Herbert Perry

(from Cartoons Magazine, April 1913)
Not to be outdone by any of the other cartoonists who may point with pride to the fact that they began drawing by scrawling crude pictures on the pages of their first school books, Herbert H. Perry of the Sioux City Journal laughingly begins the story of his career by saying:

"After the stork had introduced me to my parents and I had lubricated my vocal organs with a war whoop or two, they brought me a bottle of milk which I thrust aside, pulled a pencil out of my father's vest pocket and pointed to a bottle of ink and a piece of paper on the table, and I've been drawing ever since."

Mr. Perry is one of Iowa's native sons and the state is proud of his ability as a cartoonist. He began his career on the Sioux City Journal six years ago, and since that time his cartoons have won a name for him not only throughout the state but the entire country as well.

The Chicago Tribune included Mr. Perry in a group entitled "America's Greatest Newspaper Artists," and the other artists in the group were McCutcheon, Davenport and Bartholomew (Bart).

While at school young Perry devoted much of his time to drawing and from the time that he began on the pages of his first drawing book he had decided upon an artistic career. Leaving school he continued his drawing studies and his first successful result came when he entered an amateur competition inaugurated by "Judge." Hundreds of amateurs contributed to this contest and the young Iowa artist fell justly proud when he was informed that he had won the first prize.

Although a young man, Mr. Perry's work as a cartoonist stands out with the efforts of some of the leading cartoonists of the day. He has a style of his own and he is another of the cartoonists who believe that the brutal and vicious cartoon is not necessary to drive home a point. All of the big questions of the world are touched upon by the Sioux City cartoonist and he scores fully as many successes as the next man in his profession; but, in addition to his cartoons of political nature, or his drawings on national or international subjects, he has running through him a vein of fine humor and his human interest cartoons are so good that they are widely copied. Mr. Perry is one of the few cartoonists who appear able to compel a smile, a frown or a feeling of sympathy, by merely making what in some other cartoons are meaningless scratches of the pen.

Mr. Perry was born in Le Mars, Ia., thirty-one years ago and he has lived in that state continuously with the exception of a brief time spent in Chamberlain, N. D., during the wild and woolly days, when, as he says, the coyotes used to sing him to sleep, and also a year and a half in New York City, where he continued his art studies. Leaving New York he returned to Iowa to become the cartoonist of the Sioux City Journal.

On the Journal he has made the power of his pen felt in municipal campaigns, and his drawings have been a great factor in his paper's fight on different state issues. His cartoons on national subjects have been widely reproduced.

My name is Allan Holtz. I am a comic strip historian, and author of "American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide." This blog is my outlet for all manner of interesting, oddball and rare material related to comic strip history. It is also a forum where others interested in comic strip history are encouraged to participate through the comments, or even by contributing articles.
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